Thanks for your feedback and for sharing your article. Prior criminal record was not part of the records analyzed for this particular article about homicide in Durham.

Leanora

I’ve responded

That seems odd. It’s hard to discuss criminal violence without discussing the criminal element of the violence. Ignoring the fact that on average more than half of the victims and about 2/3rds of the killers are previously convicted criminals might mislead the unsuspecting reader away from the perfectly obvious conclusion that murder is an ordinary hazard of engaging in the criminal drug trade.

Homicide is not evenly distributed among the population. The average person, not engaged in crime and not intimately associated with criminals, relatively unlikely to be killed or injured in criminal violence. When people ignore the fact that homicide is generally confined to the criminal classes they start making unwarranted conclusions. They start to blame the weapon used instead of the hand that wielded that weapon. Failure to honestly discuss all the factors involved in a problem leads to promotion of ineffective our counterproductive “solutions” being offered for that problem.

I believe that if you check, you will find that the numbers from Durham will mirror the numbers from Raleigh. You will find that most of the murders, even a disturbing percentage of the ones labeled as “domestic,” are committed by and committed against previously convicted criminals.

We’ve always known what drives criminal violence. It isn’t the weapon, but the motives. The majority of killings in our society revolve around the use and distribution of illegal drugs. Because drug dealers can’t resolve their problems in court like a legal business would, violence is used to settle disagreements. Like any other arena where violence is the solution of choice, those quickest to use violence and the most ruthless in application of that violence will win. Failure to confront this obvious reality leads to bad policy choices on our part.

If you want to reduce all violence, gun violence included, you need to deal with the root causes. Drug prohibition is no different than the more famous alcohol Prohibition. Al Capone and his rivals killed each other in carload lots, but since Prohibition was lifted you don’t see Jim Beam and Jack Daniels shooting it out on city streets, do you? If Jim Beam and Jack Daniels have a dispute, they can sue each other. It’s messy and expensive, but people don’t end up dead in the streets. That avenue of dispute resolution is not open to drug dealers.

The drug trade is the root cause of the majority of the violence we see in society. The war on guns is merely a proxy war in the war on drugs. Rather than confront the reality of violence or the reality of this country’s failed drug control policy, people want to blame the guns. This is because it is easier to blame guns and pass laws against people like me who will follow them than it is to deal with the root causes. My suggestion is that you focus on the causes, rather than the symptoms. Instead of killing an alligator, you should drain the swamp.

I’ll keep you posted as to her reply. I am not hopeful, however. She’s a working on a documentary about “gun violence.”

In his book Proclaiming Liberty, Philip Mulivor has given us a series of “themes” that pretty much all anti-gun arguments must fall into. I’m a big believer in breaking things down into easy to understand elements. Philip has managed to give us an easy reference framework to anti-gun argument. All we need to do is determine which “theme” the gun grabbers are working in and we know how to proceed.

This week I’ll be taking a different theme each day and talking about it. Today, Theme #5

5.Gun prohibitionists expect new laws to mitigate criminal behavior

We all know this one. The gun grabbers are always trying to pass one more law. Paradise is just around the corner, we just need to pass one last law that will ensure that we get there.

We see it every time. We need to put up “No Guns Allowed” signs in parks, because the guy carrying a gun illegally, attacking someone illegally, shooting someone illegally is going to be put off by a sign that says “No Guns Allowed.

Laws are not intended to keep criminals in line. They are intended to keep the law abiding in line. They are like locks. They are just there to keep honest people honest. Perhaps the greatest discussion of how stupid the “one more law” crowd is can be seen in this video.

What kind of fool would have hired a guy to work in a restaurant who had been previously convicted of robbing a restaurant! Hi Mr. Fox. Here’s my henhouse.

Here’s my major beef with this. Whether dude handled alcohol or washed the dishes, he was a felon and he was permitted to work in a restaurant that served alcohol. By state law, if I go into that same restaurant, I have to leave my gun in the car. So the guy who can’t even touch a gun can fix my food, and if he attacks me with a kitchen knife, I have to fight back with my bare hands.

Now I live in the suburbs. There are woods around us, so there are places for the deer to live but this is a full on picket fence, paved sidewalk suburb. Unfortunately the deer are coming in when I can’t see them. They aren’t like decent, honest neighbors who call before visiting and come during normal waking hours.

What I need is a deercam. I’d like to get some photos of our berry munching visitors. Anyone got a deercam to spare? It’s got to be lockable as, like I said, I live in the suburbs with kids who walk by to and from school.

Next question. I know that discharging a firearm is illegal. Can I bowhunt?

Packetman found an interesting story out of St Louis, MO. A lady avoided a 2nd Degree murder charge because of the Castle Doctrine. Apparently the intruder broke into his ex-girlfriend’s house, so her new guy handed her a gun and helped her steady it. Then she made good on her earlier promise to him, after reminding him of that promise.

So I have two ways to go with the “lust list.” If I assume that my lust list is intended to fill out the holes in my “need” list, I would “lust” after these

1.A .300 Blackout barrel for my Templar AR, or even better, the barrel and a second Templar AR with a 6.5 Grendel barrel and a scope. I also want a .50 Beowulf barrel, but I think that’s probably overkill for anything short of bear and moose. I would like to have a “Short range” AR with 16” 5.56, 16” 300 Blackout, and 16” .50 Beowulf, all topped with an EoTech, and a “long range” AR with an 18” 5.56 and an 18” 6.5 Grendel, all topped with a nice scope.